WMOT 89.5 | LISTENER-POWERED RADIO INDEPENDENT AMERICAN ROOTS
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Catch Shakespeare's 'nimble spirit of mirth' at Centennial Park

Nashville Shakespeare Festival

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (OSBORNE)  --  You’ve got just a couple more weeks to catch this year’s Shakespeare in the Park production.

This year’s offering from The Bard is A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Artistic Director Denice Hicks says the summer 2018 selection was an easy choice.

“Midsummer is really the party play. It’s just a huge celebration of love and magic and silliness, really. So that’s why I picked it for our 30th anniversary."

Hicks says she was in the audience for that first show in 1988 and was immediately hooked. She’s performed in many of the shows in the year’s since. She’s playing the part of the mischievous Sprite Puck in the current production.

Hicks says the show is so engaging, her own three-year-old sat through the entire production.

“There’s this sense of engagement when people play in the park, and we do a lot of playing right to and with the audience. So there is a lot of engagement.”

Hicks says the casts sticks closely to the original Shakespearian language, but she also notes that The Bard included few stage directions. That allows the show’s designers, director and cast a lot of room for interpretation.

“The fairy world looks like what most people imagine the faery world to look like; very natural, lots of flowers, greenery. But then the Atenians look very contemporary.”

You can catch A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Centennial Park bandshell two more weekends – Thursday thru Sunday. The show then moves to Franklin for a weekend of performances beginning Sept. 13.

The shows are free, but a donation is suggested. See NashvilleShakes.org for the details.